Further developing existing technology, NHK promises to bring true holographic television images that do not require glasses to nearly all homes in Japan by 2022. Jun Murai, a scientist from Japan’s Keio University, says: “Football matches held in Tokyo could be relayed to any stadium in the world where full-sized players would appear so life-like that fans would believe they were at the match.” Continue reading for more.
5. 3D Printing Organs
Researchers at The University of Iowa Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department are working on 3D organ printing, where they use a 3D printer to print living structures with bio-ink. The goal is to eventually print a working organ that can be transplanted into a human. This project is supported in part by the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Iowa.
4. WildCat
WildCat is a four-legged robot being developed to run fast on all types of terrain. So far WildCat has run at about 16 mph on flat terrain using bounding and galloping gaits. The video shows WildCat’s best performance so far. WildCat is being developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA’s M3 program.
3. WiTriCity Wireless Electricity
WiTricity is based on strong coupling between electromagnetic resonant objects to transfer energy wirelessly between them. This differs from other methods like simple induction, microwaves, or air ionization. The system consists of transmitters and receivers that contain magnetic loop antennas critically tuned to the same frequency.
2. Crystal Invisibility Cloak
It might not be as slick as Harry Potter’s garment or the potions that transform other unseen heroes in books and on screen, but scientists have built an invisibility cloak that makes everyday objects vanish by bending light to fool the eye. The cloak is basically a lump of crystal rather than a flowing cape that can hide small objects, such as pins and paperclips, but it’s the first to work in the range of light visible to humans. It exploits the natural light-bending properties of calcite, a transparent glass-like crystal, so that an object placed under it is hidden by what appears to be a flat, featureless surface.
1. Hover Car
The Urban Aeronautics X-Hawk is a design for a flying car which is being developed by Rafi Yoeli in Tel Aviv, Israel. Yoeli and his privately held company, Urban Aeronautics, claim to have flown the car to a height of 3 ft, though they say that greater heights are possible. It will be about the size of a large van. The X-Hawk and its smaller unmanned version, the Mule, would be used in search and rescue operations where a helicopter would be useless or at least very dangerous.
